Original meaning: wine-warming vessel
Pictograph of a type of vessel used to serve warm wine during ancestor worship ceremonies. Based on the original meaning "wine-warming vessel". The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "fedual title or rank".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsjak | [ts]ewk | nobility, rank |
說文解字
《說文》：“爵，禮器也。象爵之形，中有鬯酒，又持之也，所以飲。器象爵者，取其鳴節節足足也。，古文爵，象形。”
Sources
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Pictograph of the head of an axe. Used to represent a soldier.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dzriX | [m-s-]rəʔ | officer; gentleman |
說文解字
《說文》：“士，事也。數始於一，終於十。从一，从十。孔子曰：‘推十合一為士。’”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.59-60
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Originally written as 無, which is a pictograph of a person dancing, with ox tails or bird feathers hanging from his arms, to pray for rain. The 舛 (two feet) component was later added to emphasize the action of dancing after 無 was phonetically borrowed for different meanings.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mjuX | k.m(r)aʔ | dance (v.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“舞，樂也。用足相背。从舛，舞聲。，古文舞从羽、亡。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.472林志強《《文源》評注》p.203
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)